This annual summer symposium will celebrate 25 years of Land/Water and the Visual Arts (and its predecessors) as an active research group.
Out of Place: The artist residency as a space of creative exploration and reflection
The 25th Land/Water and the Visual Arts Research Group Summer Symposium
Between 2013 and 2017, seven artists associated with the University of Plymouth responded to Cyprus through residencies at Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC). The resulting work indicates a range of different responses to the island and to the complex layers of Cypriot culture, a place where historically the Hellenic and the Islamic were variously entangled and, along with legacies of British colonialism, remain marked now.
Taking the Nicosia practice-led research programme as a focus, the 2018 Summer Symposium hosted by Land/Water and the Visual Arts at the University of Plymouth will focus on ‘residency’ as a means of fostering creative investigations in response to place. Through this case study the symposium invites critical reflection on the pleasures and challenges of working in previously unfamiliar locations.
Find out more the contributors and programmes for the symposium below.
Speakers
Dr Carole Baker – Photographer and writer, Lecturer in Photography
Dr Baker is a practice based researcher exploring posthumanist and phenomenological debates around the non-human animal through a Critical Realist photographic practice. Her current work Sensing the Familiar juxtaposes the social realities of Cyprus dog rescue with philosophical reflections on the nature of alterity, being, power and knowledge.
Dr Baker is a practice based researcher exploring posthumanist and phenomenological debates around the non-human animal through a Critical Realist photographic practice. Her current work Sensing the Familiar juxtaposes the social realities of Cyprus dog rescue with philosophical reflections on the nature of alterity, being, power and knowledge.
Christopher Cook – Artist, Associate Professor in Fine Art
Christopher is a painter who employs broadly surrealist processes and a specific monochrome medium to interrogate a range of themes, including genetic modification, sacred and profane architecture, and migration/protectionism. His work questions the relationship between painting and photographic reproduction, and between surrealist approaches and Eastern philosophies.
Christopher is a painter who employs broadly surrealist processes and a specific monochrome medium to interrogate a range of themes, including genetic modification, sacred and profane architecture, and migration/protectionism. His work questions the relationship between painting and photographic reproduction, and between surrealist approaches and Eastern philosophies.
Dr Hannah Drayson – Artist, Lecturer in Transtechnology
Dr Drayson is an intermedia artist and lecturer in transtechnology. Her research explores the technical and conceptual manifestations of the embodied imagination. She is co-convenor of the Transtechnology Research group at the University of Plymouth.
Dr Drayson is an intermedia artist and lecturer in transtechnology. Her research explores the technical and conceptual manifestations of the embodied imagination. She is co-convenor of the Transtechnology Research group at the University of Plymouth.
Stuart Moore – Film-maker and Associate Lecturer in Media Arts
Stuart is a film-maker and sound artist based in Plymouth. Stuart’s work screens internationally and he has won awards from London Short Film Festival and two South West Media Innovation Awards. He is currently a 3D3 AHRC-funded doctoral researcher at Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE, whose PhD inquiry focuses on personal archives, film and memory.
Stuart is a film-maker and sound artist based in Plymouth. Stuart’s work screens internationally and he has won awards from London Short Film Festival and two South West Media Innovation Awards. He is currently a 3D3 AHRC-funded doctoral researcher at Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE, whose PhD inquiry focuses on personal archives, film and memory.
Liz Nicol – Photographer, Associate Professor and Programme Leader, MA Photography
Liz is currently completing an AHRC interdisciplinary project ‘Remember Me. The changing face of memorialisation’. And engaged in a long term project, resulting in exhibitions, ‘Field Studies of the Venetian Lagoon’ 2016 a collaboration with Ecologist Jane da Mosto and ‘Nella Veduta’ (in the View) 2018.
Liz is currently completing an AHRC interdisciplinary project ‘Remember Me. The changing face of memorialisation’. And engaged in a long term project, resulting in exhibitions, ‘Field Studies of the Venetian Lagoon’ 2016 a collaboration with Ecologist Jane da Mosto and ‘Nella Veduta’ (in the View) 2018.
Dr Kayla Parker – Artist, film-maker and Lecturer in Media Arts
Dr Parker is an artist film-maker who creates innovative works for cinema, gallery, public and online spaces using film-based and digital technologies. Her research interests centre around subjectivity and place, embodiment and technological mediation, from feminist perspectives, with a particular interest in the interrelationship between still and moving image, and new materialism.
Dr Parker is an artist film-maker who creates innovative works for cinema, gallery, public and online spaces using film-based and digital technologies. Her research interests centre around subjectivity and place, embodiment and technological mediation, from feminist perspectives, with a particular interest in the interrelationship between still and moving image, and new materialism.
Dr Simon Standing – Associate Professor in Photography and Associate Head of School
Dr Standing explores our relationship to sacred and secular architectural environments through photographic research. Current projects focus on urban development on Cyprus undertaken within the recent artist residency. Further research explores his relationship with Gothic cathedrals that have been a very particular element of his personal and photographic identity over the last 30 years.
Dr Standing explores our relationship to sacred and secular architectural environments through photographic research. Current projects focus on urban development on Cyprus undertaken within the recent artist residency. Further research explores his relationship with Gothic cathedrals that have been a very particular element of his personal and photographic identity over the last 30 years.
Dr Yiannis Toumazis – Director of NiMAC, co-convenor, NiMAC/PU partnership
Dr Toumazis, writer, curator, director, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre and chair of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, is also an assistant professor at Frederick University, Nicosia. In 2011 he acted as curator for the Cypriot Pavillion, Venice Biennale.
Dr Toumazis, writer, curator, director, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre and chair of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, is also an assistant professor at Frederick University, Nicosia. In 2011 he acted as curator for the Cypriot Pavillion, Venice Biennale.
Liz Wells – Professor in Photographic Culture, co-convenor, NiMAC/PU partnership
Professor Wells writes and lectures on photographic histories and practices, and curates exhibitions on land and environment. She co-edits photographies journal and is series editor for Photography, Place, Environment, Bloomsbury Academic Press (forthcoming). She is an elected member of the Board of Directors, Society for Photographic Education, and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Gothenberg.
Professor Wells writes and lectures on photographic histories and practices, and curates exhibitions on land and environment. She co-edits photographies journal and is series editor for Photography, Place, Environment, Bloomsbury Academic Press (forthcoming). She is an elected member of the Board of Directors, Society for Photographic Education, and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of Gothenberg.
Moderators and panellists
Dr Rachel Christofides – Associate Professor in English and Associate Head of School
Dr Christofides teaches Victorian literature and is MA Programme Manager, English: Literature, Culture, Modernity
Dr Christofides teaches Victorian literature and is MA Programme Manager, English: Literature, Culture, Modernity
Dr Stephen Felmingham – Head of Painting, Drawing and Print, Plymouth College of Art; regional co-ordinator for the Land2 art research network, UK
Dr Felmingham is an artist, academic and principal lecturer in painting, drawing and printmaking at Plymouth College of Art. He studied at UAL Wimbledon and gained his practice-led doctorate at the University of Leeds. His research interests are drawing as language and socially-engaged art practice and he is an active member of Land2.
Dr Felmingham is an artist, academic and principal lecturer in painting, drawing and printmaking at Plymouth College of Art. He studied at UAL Wimbledon and gained his practice-led doctorate at the University of Leeds. His research interests are drawing as language and socially-engaged art practice and he is an active member of Land2.
Heidi Morstang – Artist and Lecturer in Photography and moving image; convenor of the research group for Land/Water and the Visual Arts
Heidi works with contemporary photography and experimental documentary films. She is interested in the social, cultural, environmental and archaeological histories embedded in landscapes. The majority of her work is created in the Nordic Arctic region, often in collaboration with scientists and various academic disciplines such as forensic archaeology, political and cultural history, the sciences, geo-sciences and pure mathematics.
Heidi works with contemporary photography and experimental documentary films. She is interested in the social, cultural, environmental and archaeological histories embedded in landscapes. The majority of her work is created in the Nordic Arctic region, often in collaboration with scientists and various academic disciplines such as forensic archaeology, political and cultural history, the sciences, geo-sciences and pure mathematics.